IT support for accounting and CPA firms across Dallas-Fort Worth, focused on filing-season reliability.
Even products marketed as fully cloud-based can depend on a hosted desktop, a specific browser version, a scanner with the right driver, or a network fast enough not to time out mid-return. If several filing steps depend on the same login, scanner, network or hosted desktop, one failure during deadline week can stall more than one person at once.
In March, a slow login or a scanner that stops recognizing documents can become the return that was supposed to go out today. The documents are ready, the client is waiting, and the return cannot move until the scanner, the hosted desktop and the tax application agree to work together.
Tax and practice software can depend on infrastructure that never shows up in the sales pitch. A hosted desktop, a database server, a specific print driver, cached client data sitting on a workstation even when the main product is described as cloud-based. When one of those pieces is neglected the rest of the stack can look fine while the actual work stalls.
If staff move the same client material through a portal, email attachments, payroll integrations and shared folders, copies can end up in more places than the engagement letter describes. A document portal, an email attachment, a payroll integration, a signed engagement stored somewhere nobody remembers, and the folder structure a former employee set up and never documented. Access should follow who currently needs it, not who happened to touch the client file at some point.
A backup that has never been restored is a theory, not a plan. A completed backup job tells you the software ran. It does not tell you the tax data, the accounting files and the document platform can actually come back together, in the order the firm would need them, during the week that matters most.
Federal law and the FTC Safeguards Rule require covered tax preparation firms, including sole practices, to develop and maintain a written information security program for protected customer information. It is commonly called a WISP. The IRS publishes Publication 5708 as a starting template and guide, but each firm must tailor its plan to its own size, systems, work and risks. It is a firm-wide document covering governance, training and procedures, not a piece of software, and no IT provider can hand you compliance in a box.
Within an agreed engagement, we can implement and document technical controls identified for those systems, such as access controls, multi-factor authentication, device protection, monitoring and recovery testing. Deciding what the plan says, who is accountable, and whether the overall program meets its obligations stays with your firm and its advisers.
Send us one question about your firm's IT and we will give you a straight answer, at no charge, with nothing to sit through afterwards. We would rather answer a question now than be called after it has turned into a mess. If the honest answer is that somebody has to look at it, we will tell you that too.
This is an answer to a question, not troubleshooting, system access, or ongoing support.
Some questions cannot be answered honestly from the outside. When that happens we may offer to come and look properly: a read-only review of the systems we agree on, and a written summary of the sampled findings and our recommended next steps within the agreed scope. These take real hours, so reviews are subject to availability, and we will confirm any date in writing.
Asking does not book a review. We confirm the scope and the date in writing before anyone touches a system. Printed material does not reserve an appointment. One review per firm.
A review is a point-in-time sample of the systems named in the written scope. Items outside that scope are not evaluated and have not passed. This is a limited IT safeguard review, not a WISP audit or a legal opinion.
If one login, scanner or restore would be difficult to replace during filing season, ask us about it before the deadline is in the room.
Call (817) 265-5000 or email [email protected]. Arlington, and we answer our own phone.
Ask us your question